How to harvest acorns for FOOD
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- Опубліковано 16 лип 2024
- Acorns, my gateway drug to foraging. Here we have one of the most abundant sources of wild food on the planet! The only catch is, we can't eat them straight off the ground, they require some processing. In this series, we're going to go through every step of the journey of turning acorns into bread!
Part 1 shows us the fastest way to harvest acorns without any special equipment. We also learn different methods to sort our harvest, leaving behind only the good acorns, and last we'll dry them for long-term storage.
We are so excited that you're joining us on this journey!
Timestamps:
00:00 - Introduction
00:40 - Before you begin
01:02 - Harvesting
01:14 - Sorting Acorns
02:44 - Testing Water Separation
04:12 - Drying
04:50 - How long to dry?
05:54 - Long Term Storage
06:22 - Final Thoughts
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Part 2 has now been released! You can find it here - ua-cam.com/video/OS7mtRWXXDs/v-deo.html
Tip...if you plan to gather more acorns in the same area later on, don't pitch your bad ones back on the same area. :) Bag them or discard in a known 'bad nut' area.
Great tip!
I've found this to be the fastest way to harvest acorns without special equipment. What's your method of harvesting or drying acorns? Let me know!
This is fabulous, you are really good at explaining things and structuring the video so it is easy to follow!
Thank you so much!
Just found your channel!! Loving it My deep gratitude for your hard work.. thank you for sharing this wonderful knowledge ❤
I've always meant to process acorns, but I never set aside enough time! I'll have to make it a priority next fall. Can't wait for the rest of the videos in the series!
Definitely! I’m looking forward to living at my new place which will allow for much more room for such projects. This year I lucked out with having some oak trees close by that were extremely prolific which makes things a bit easier. :D best of luck with the harvest and I can’t wait to get to show the next parts!
Super cool video and quite informative on each step and the techniques which worked or didn’t. Keep it up!
Will do! Thanks for the feedback. It was really cool to find how poorly water separation worked, I was expecting better.
This channel is so cool!!
Nice music btw! 😊
Do they have to be completely dry if you are going to soak them right after to remove tannins? I know this is for storage. Wondering because I didn’t see this video before I blended them and soaked them already. Lol. I started with part 3
Is it possible to skip the initial drying stage, and just put more effort into shelling them same day and go right into the leaching stage? I am in a dorm so the dehydrators I can afford have proved impractical/too loud, but I don’t mind putting extra effort in or processing right away
Can I pick them off the tree? Do they need to have turned brown first?, or are green ones okay?
Could you dry them in a basket that hangs in an herb drying room? Or do they have to be dried in a single layer?
i have an airfryer with a dehydrating setting, will that work?
❤
Great video thank you 😊 I was wondering if after dehydrating the acorns for long term storage could you shell and vacuum pack them vs putting in the basket? Appreciate your input have a great day and keep foraging 🍁🍂🌻✌
I haven't tried, but I think that would be fine!
@@FeralForaging Many thanks 😊 I'll give it a go. Made some acorn flour the other day and made some crackers 😋 added some sesame and poppy seeds yum ....
I tried something else today while harvesting my acorns... since its on my own property I filled a 5 gallon pail half way with water and put my new acorns in as I went removing any floaters and continued on my way. Hope this helps save a bit of time and might prevent carrying back bad acorns . Happy gathering 🍁🍂🌻
@Feral Foraging So what method would you use to determine good nuts from the bad ones? Would you crack and shell them first and then let them dry?
I generally visually check as they are drying, removing ones with acorn weavil holes as I find them. 90% of the bad acorns I get in a harvest are due to acorn weavil.
@@FeralForaging Thanks
Hi @FeralForaging, I love your video, I just found you. I think this is great ideas to eat acorns; I never seriously considered that they could be eaten. Can you recommend one or more trustworthy sites to look up the exact and correct nutritional values of acorns and other uncommon to eat nuts? I have tried to look this information for acorns but I think because they are uncommon to use for food complete and reliable information about them is scarce. I feel that the official wikipedia page for acorns is incomplete, though it does contain some information.
Im interested in knowing the data for weight content and calories per 100g for Protein, Carbohydrates (as minimum specified by sugars + non-sugars but preferably the exact specifications of each sugar type and their weight, fructose, glucose, sucrose etc), Fats (specified by the different types of fatty acids: saturated, monosaturated, polysaturated, n-3, n-6) and if possible specifications for aminoacids and sterols (phytosterols).
This is what I've used in the past -> fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/170157/nutrients
I don't think there is a lot of data on this unfortunately.
If there getting blended in water for flour anyhow why dry the first step?
If making bread, with no plans to store acorns, would it be feasible to shell them before drying, blanch them to remove the papery covering (don't remember what that is called), and then dry them? Or even before drying, grind, leach, and then dry? Just looking for the most efficient way to do this. Mom's don't have a lot of extra time. Lol.
The only issue that you’ll run into is that it is a royal pain to shell acorns before they have dried. Maybe try to dry at least a little bit before cracking? The rest should work! I also wouldn’t worry too much about blanching to remove the covering, in my experience it tends to come off during leaching. That should save some time as well.
I wanted to know this as well! My original plan was to shell them at the park I gathered them, but I suppose I’d be making it harder on myself if I did that😅
Hey! I have questions about drying nuts. I wanted to give foraging a trial run so I recently gathered some acorns; not a substantial amount but enough to experiment with. I have a rather simple dehydrator, and after leaving the acorns in for a few days on the lowest setting (105°F), I now have mostly burnt acorns. They don't smell burnt, but the flesh is dark in color, almost as dark as the shell. #1 Is this, and (any overdried nut) still salvageable? #2 if so, should I rehydrate and blend in a blender to make flour or should I leave them dry and grind in a grinder? Your help is much appreciated 😊 Thank you!
It is salvageable, but needs to be leached.
@@FeralForaging thank you 😊
How long did you leave them in the dehydrator? I heard them temps but not complete length of time.
I may not have said explicitly, but basically, “until they’re dry”. Different acorns dry at different rates. In the video I show how to test for dryness to ensure they’re done!
A lot of oak species produce acorns, which species can we use to make acorn bread?
As far as I am aware, acorns from any oak tree can be used. Of course, there are considerations such as the size of acorns you’re getting. Super small ones would be a pain to process!
All of them! Some just have more or less tannins and need different leaching times
Question couldn't you just do the water test right away without the visual inspection?
Should we sort out acorns that are growing a little tail on them?😅 autumn has been warm here
Small "tails" aren't a problem! I've made flour with early stage sprouts before.
I harvested acorns twice. The first time I put them in the dehydrator after waiting 2 weeks for them to dry in the sun. The dehydrator was too hot because after a couple of days they were all dark brown inside. I tossed those. Attempt #2 I set the dehydrator to 95 (the lowest setting). Our dehydrator looked like an older version of yours. I tested several times and they were still rubbery. After a couple of days, they were finally dry, but the color was again dark throughout. Do I have to toss these too? They do not look the same light color as yours after drying. Each attempt was with acorns of a different variety of oak, but they all did the same thing. I can't even think of starting over again or what I could change. Help!!
The dark color is fine! I get these too if I dehydrate at 95F.
Can all acorns be prepared in this manner?
Yes, every member of the genus Quercus (Oaks).
If they have brown spots on the inside is the meat no good? It’s not bugs it’s like a bruise?
Spots I’d be concerned. Just coloration is usually fine.
where is the part 3 video?
In production!
People should bred a new breed of this delicious nuts , something like peanut & less tannic
I've always heard that acorns a toxic
What about tannin? you need to soak them for a week, change water several times to remove it.
What you are showing is not safe.
You’ll notice that this is only part 1, harvest and storage. Leaching is in part 3 which I am editing right now.
@@FeralForaging remove shells, leach to remove tannin, the last - drying
I wouldn’t do it that way. It’s very difficult to quickly remove acorns from their shells if they aren’t dry, that’s why it occurs in this step. Don’t worry, they’ll be leached in Part 3 and then dried!
TIL that trees have abortions. Humans really are weird about a lot of apparently very natural things.
How much bread you going to make there is enough to make at least 8 lofes